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(09/17/07 2:51am)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Vince Young and the Tennessee Titans have run out of magic, at least against the Indianapolis Colts.\nPeyton Manning threw for 312 yards and a touchdown, and the Colts held off Tennessee for a 22-20 victory Sunday when the Titans couldn’t pull off a final-drive comeback.\nThis time, the Titans (1-1) trailed by 13 points instead of 14.\nBut unlike last December, when Rob Bironas capped a similar comeback with a 60-yard field goal, the Colts collapsed around Young on fourth-and-four. That forced him to lob the ball away in the final seconds.\nManning kneeled down to run out the final seconds as defending Super Bowl champion Indianapolis (2-0) reminded Tennessee which team remains atop the AFC South.\nAdam Vinatieri had one of his worst days in years despite making field goals of 22, 39 and 20 yards.\nHe had an extra point blocked and a field goal partially blocked that bounced off the crossbar before going over. He also missed a 36-yarder to the left after the Colts recovered a fumble in the fourth quarter.\nThe Colts had every reason for a letdown in their first road game after unveiling their title banner in the season opener with a 41-10 rout of New Orleans. And they played without starting linebackers Freddy Keiaho (right elbow) and Rob Morris (ribs).\nIndianapolis allowed Tennessee 313 yards, including 141 yards rushing. That was well below the 282 yards the Titans had in their opener.\nThe defending Super Bowl champs nearly blew a 16-6 halftime lead with Vinatieri’s struggles and the Titans picking off Manning and sacking him twice in the second half.\nThe Colts twice had the ball at the Tennessee 8-yard line and had to settle for field goals. They even came up with a fumble when linebacker Tyjuan Hagler, starting in place of Keiaho, recovered at the beginning of the fourth period.\nBut Tennessee, which gave up more yards than any other NFL defense in 2006, held the Colts to a three-and-out. Vinatieri, the kicker signed last year for his accuracy in the clutch, missed a 36-yarder.\nYoung, who stopped a drive himself with a taunting penalty just before halftime, drove the Titans 74 yards and pulled them within 22-20 with a 2-yard pass to Roydell Williams with 6:02 left.\nManning had his own chance to seal the victory. But Titans cornerback Nick Harper, who won a Super Bowl ring with the Colts in February, leaped up and tipped away a pass intended for Marvin Harrison at the goal line. Then Kyle Vanden Bosch sacked Manning on third down, forcing the punt.\nYoung, who looked so poised in becoming the first rookie quarterback to lead two comebacks of 14 points or more in 2006, finally showed his youth.\nThe Titans had 98 seconds left and needed a field goal to win and improve to 2-0 for the first time since 1999. Young was sacked on the first play. He overthrew Brandon Jones on third down. Then the Colts collapsed around Young on fourth down, and he fumbled.\nLeft guard Jacob Bell grabbed the ball for the Titans, but could do nothing with it, and the game was over.
(09/17/07 2:50am)
CLEVELAND – This was a high-flying, high-scoring show even Chad Johnson and all his props couldn’t top.\nDerek Anderson threw five touchdown passes, Jamal Lewis rushed for 215 yards and the Cleveland Browns, so desperate after losing their home opener they traded their starting quarterback, outlasted the Cincinnati Bengals and Carson Palmer 51-45 on Sunday.\nPalmer tossed a career-high six TDs, but his final chance to rally the Bengals (1-1) ended when he was intercepted with 21 seconds left by Cleveland cornerback Leigh Bodden, who made a diving grab near Cleveland’s sideline.\nOne week ago, Anderson was backing up Charlie Frye before being brought in during the first half when the Browns (1-1) were blown out and embarrassed 34-7 by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Two days later, the Browns dealt Frye to the Seattle Seahawks, becoming the first team since the AFL/NFL merger to trade its season-opening quarterback before Week 2.\nCleveland’s plan was for Anderson to hold down the starting job until rookie Brady Quinn was ready. That plan, too, may be scrapped following Anderson’s breakout performance.\nIt was just the third time in NFL history that two QBs threw five TD passes in the same game. Oakland’s Tom Flores (6) and Houston’s George Blanda (5) both did it on Dec. 22, 1963, and Billy Kilmer of New Orleans (6) and Charley Johnson of St. Louis (6) also did on Nov. 5, 1969.\nThe teams combined for 96 points, 1,085 offensive yards and just five punts.\nAnderson finished 20-of-33 for 328 yards and the five TDs, which tied a team record shared by Frank Ryan, Bill Nelsen, Brian Sipe and Kelly Holcomb.\nPalmer went 33-of-50 for 401 yards, but Cincinnati’s QB was hurt by a few late drops as the Bengals tried to come back.\nOut of timeouts, the Bengals got the ball back at their 9-yard line with 1:03 left. After two completions got them to the 20, Palmer threaded a 30-yarder over the middle between two defenders to Johnson, who had 11 catches for 209 yards and two TDs.\nOne play later, Palmer tried to feather another pass down the sideline to Johnson, but Bodden, who missed practice time this week with a groin injury, made a pick the Browns won’t soon forget.\nAnderson took a knee to run out the clock, and the Browns celebrated an unlikely win that gave third-year coach Romeo Crennel just his second win against an AFC North opponent in 14 tries.\nCleveland’s Braylon Edwards had eight catches for 146 yards and two touchdowns. Joe Jurevicius had two TD catches and Kellen Winslow had the other from Anderson, who got his first win as an NFL starter.\nLewis, signed by the Browns as a free agent this winter, averaged 7.7 yards per carry thanks to a 66-yard TD burst in the third quarter and 47-yard run in the fourth that set up Phil Dawson’s 18-yard field goal that put the Browns up 51-38 with 5:44 left.\nPalmer brought the Bengals right back and hit Glenn Holt from 7 yards to make it 51-45 with 3:39 left.\nThe Browns were able to use up some clock, picking up a crucial first down when Edwards caught a pass over the middle and pushed his way past the markers despite being hit by several Bengals.\nCleveland, though, had to punt it away and Dave Zastudil, who missed last week’s game with a bad back, dropped a pooch kick inside the 10 to make it tough on the Bengals.\nCincinnati’s Rudi Johnson had 118 yards on 23 carries.\nChad Johnson’s second TD catch pulled the Bengals within 34-31 in the third, and as the NFL’s most eccentric showman promised, he jumped headfirst into the Dawg Pound, where he was baptized in a shower of beer by Cleveland’s rowdiest fans.\nJohnson climbed down and blew kisses to crowd. Seconds later, Lewis blew by the Bengals.\nOn first down at the 34, Lewis broke free at the line and down the left side on a run similar to a few he made in 2003 when he scorched the Browns for a single-game record 295 yards.\nPalmer’s fifth TD pass – a 5-yarder to T.J. Houshmandzadeh – got the Bengals within three, but Anderson countered with a 37-yard strike to Edwards, who made a diving catch near the 5 and rolled into the end zone.
(09/14/07 3:36am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Two young brothers bludgeoned to death by their mother wielding a 10-pound weight. A 2-year-old slipping out a door with a broken lock and drowning in a pool. A disabled 8-year-old poisoned by a lethal overdose of her allergy medication.\nFifty-three children died from abuse and neglect during the state’s 2006 state fiscal year, just one fewer than the previous year, the Indiana Department of Child Services reported Thursday.\n“These are not statistics to be glanced over lightly,” advocate Bill Stanczykiewicz, president and CEO of the Indiana Youth Institute, said. “These are young children dying from abuse and neglect. This should sicken all of us to take action on their behalf.”\nIndiana averages 3.4 abuse or neglect deaths per 100,000 children, or about 1 1/2 times the national average of just under two deaths per 100,000, he said.\nThe latest report covered the 12-month period ending June 30, 2006. Abuse deaths rose to 30 from 24 during the previous state fiscal year, and neglect deaths fell to 23 from 30.\nEleven of the deaths in the latest reporting period occurred in households the caseworkers had prior contact with, compared with 20 deaths in state fiscal year 2005, the report said.
(09/13/07 4:30am)
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Crews plan to remove and preserve dozens of hand-cut timbers that once supported a stone culvert as part of the 19th century Wabash and Erie Canal.\nConstruction workers found the timbers – up to 40 feet long and most 14 inches square – while trying to sink support pilings for a bridge that will be part of a bypass being built southeast of Terre Haute.\nThe timbers will be numbered, then reassembled and placed on display by the Whitewater Canal Trail Inc. near Metamora in southeastern Indiana.\nA canal culvert, often consisting of stone arches, was designed to carry the canal bed over creeks or rivers. Also on top of the culvert was the canal towpath, where mules pulled boats through the canal, and an earthen berm.\nTo support the culvert, a wooden platform was built of heavy timbers. Crews have uncovered 56 timbers along Little Honey Creek, most in a stretch of about 70 feet.\n“The timber is incredibly intact and were under about two feet of silt,” said Alice Roberts, an investigator for Gray & Pape, which has a statewide contract with the Indiana Department of Transportation to document historical finds.\nThe Wabash and Erie Canal was open to Terre Haute by 1847, with the Little Honey Creek culvert built around 1850, Burden said.\nConstruction of the canal stretching from Lake Erie at Toledo, Ohio, to Evansville began in 1832 at Fort Wayne.\nBurden said the canal south of Terre Haute proved problematic and was largely the cause of the state government going into bankruptcy over canals. Navigation south of Terre Haute ended in 1861, while the section north of the city survived until 1874.\nDiscovery of the timbers has delayed construction of the new bridge, but should not hinder the overall completion of the bypass between Interstate 70 and U.S. 41, said Don Thornton, a state Department of Transportation engineer.
(09/13/07 4:25am)
MUNCIE, Ind. – A city police officer has resigned following his suspension for crashing his squad car while giving three female Ball State University students a ride.\nJason Lyons, a six-year veteran of the police force, submitted his resignation letter last week, Police Chief Joe Winkle said.\n“He was very apologetic and decided to move on,” Winkle said.\nLyons, 38, might still have to deal with criminal charges after taking the students for what Winkle has called a “joy ride” on Aug. 28.\nThe officer met the freshmen students at a near-campus convenience store before 1 a.m. and one of them asked him for a ride back to their residence hall, according to statements from Lyons and the students. Lyons then drove down a couple streets before crashing into a light pole on campus.\nThe crash did several thousand dollars in damage to the squad car, and one of the students suffered a head cut.\nWinkle has said Lyons drove fast enough to scare the teenagers and “was basically showing off for three college girls.”\nLyons could not be located for comment as no telephone number was listed in \nhis name.\nWinkle said he planned to turn the case over to the Delaware County prosecutor’s office for a decision on whether Lyons will face any charges.
(09/13/07 3:39am)
OWENSBORO, Ky. – Authorities have identified the man whose nude body was found mutilated – with his hands and feet severed – nearly 17 years ago by hunters in western Kentucky.\nThe results of DNA testing confirmed that the body was that of Scott Michael Morris, who was last seen leaving a convenience store in Indianapolis in 1978 when he was only 14.\nMorris’ family at the time told police that the boy frequently ran away from home but usually returned. His grandmother reported him missing, but it was not until 1989 that the family filed a formal missing persons report.\n“In 1989 some friends of the family got a call (from Morris) saying he was alive but wouldn’t say where he was,” Kentucky State Police Detective Juan Moorman said Tuesday. “He said he was working for a carnival.”\nPolice said it was unclear whether his family had contact with him in those intervening years.\nKnown for years by investigators as the “handless, footless man,” the body was found with a farmer’s tan in a brush pile by two rabbit hunters in January 1990. He had been shot six times in his head and chest and appeared to have been beaten with a blunt instrument before being left in eastern Daviess County. He also was missing all his teeth.\n“Whoever did this went to great lengths to obscure the identity of the body,” said Trooper Joe Woo, a spokesman for the Kentucky State Police post in Henderson.\nThe body was identified after Indianapolis police contacted Kentucky investigators to share a cold case. A description of the missing boy matched the body, and tests on DNA samples from Morris’ relatives confirmed his identity, police said.\nPolice said the family has provided information that has led investigators to several persons of interest. But because the killing may have occurred in Indiana or Kentucky, federal authorities may become involved.\n“Now we are investigating individuals close to him at the time of his death,” Woo said. “We don’t know what ties he has to Daviess County and why he ended up here.”
(09/13/07 3:39am)
BUFFALO, N.Y. – Patricia Dugas reached out, touched Kevin Everett’s arm and asked her son if he could feel her hand. Everett – lying in a hospital bed, barely awake and hooked to life support systems – nodded yes.\n“I can’t even explain it to you; he’s like a miracle,” Dugas said, her voice breaking, in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.\nEverett’s mother spoke publicly for the first time Wednesday, one day after doctors reversed Everett’s grim prognosis when he voluntarily moved his arms and legs.\n“That’s right. They’re surprised themselves,” Dugas said. “They don’t know Kevin Everett. Oh, man, I always told him when he was a little boy, ‘You show them better than you can tell them.’ He’s going to be fine. I really believe it.”\nShe said Everett can shake his head, even throw it back in laughter. He has trouble speaking because of a breathing tube, so instead she said Everett is using a device to spell out words on a screen by hitting letters with a pen in his mouth.\nDugas left her home in Port Arthur, Texas, on Monday not knowing whether her son, the Bills reserve tight end, would ever walk again after sustaining a life-threatening spinal cord injury.\nOn Tuesday, everything changed as she watched her son move his limbs and feel her touch when he was partially awakened from a sedated state.\n“Based on our experience, the fact he’s moving so well, so early after such a catastrophic injury means he will walk again,” said Dr. Barth Green, chairman of the department of neurological surgery at the University of Miami school of medicine. “It’s totally spectacular, totally unexpected.”\nEmotionally drained yet genuinely upbeat, Dugas let out a big laugh in discussing how difficult the last four days have been.\n“Happy,” said Dugas, who’s been at her son’s bedside at Buffalo’s Millard Fillmore Gates Hospital since Monday. “I’m extremely happy. I’m grateful.”\nEverett sustained the injury Sunday after ducking his head while tackling the Denver Broncos’ Domenik Hixon during the second-half kickoff of the Bills’ season opener. He dropped face-first to the ground after his helmet hit Hixon high on the left shoulder and side of the helmet.\n“It’s feasible, but it’s not 100 percent predictable at this time ... he could lead a normal life,” said Green, who added he has been consulting with doctors in Buffalo since Everett was injured.\nIn a report Tuesday evening, Buffalo’s WIVB-TV quoted Bills orthopedic surgeon Dr. Andrew Cappuccino as saying: “We may be witnessing a \nminor miracle.”\nDugas is certain.\n“We’re going to take it slow getting him up on his feet, but we hope to see him walk out of here,” she said. “He has a strong will and determination. I tell you, he’s not going to settle for this. You’re all going to see a miracle.”
(09/13/07 3:38am)
ROCHESTER, Ind. - A 24-year-old soldier from northern Indiana died while deployed in Iraq, Earl-Love Funeral Home said.\nArmy Sgt. Nicholas Patterson died Monday in Baghdad, according to the Rochester funeral home. Information on the circumstances of Patterson’s death was not immediately released Wednesday by the Department of Defense.\nPatterson was a 2001 graduate of Rochester High School, where he was a top basketball and baseball player.\n“He was a highly competitive, high-energy kid,” baseball coach Brian Hooker said. “You never had to worry about him not bringing his full energy to the field.”\nPatterson’s survivors include his wife, Jayme, and their 4-year-old son in North Carolina.\nLinda Brennan, who was Patterson’s geometry teacher at the school 40 miles south of South Bend, said he had a zest for life.\n“He was hard-working and had a great attitude,” Brennan said. “He had such a great sense of humor and could make a tense moment light.”\nPatterson was the 92nd member of the military from Indiana to have died after being sent to the Middle East for the war in Iraq.
(09/13/07 3:38am)
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – This videotape needs no interpretation: New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick walked out of his news conference Wednesday when pressed repeatedly about the sideline spying scandal that landed him on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s crowded docket.\nTen minutes before his regular availability, Belichick issued a one-paragraph statement apologizing to his team and confirming that he has spoken to Goodell about an “interpretation” of league rules that ban videotaping of the opposing sideline.\n“Although it remains a league matter, I want to apologize to everyone who has been affected; most of all ownership, staff and players,” Belichick said. “Following the league’s decision, I will have further comment.”\nIt was not clear whether Belichick was apologizing for his actions or the distraction it has caused his team as it prepares for Sunday night’s marquee game against San Diego. But if he thought – or even hoped – that the standing-room -only crowd of media was there to talk about the Chargers, he failed to prepare in the manner that has made him one of the most successful coaches in the history of the league.\nNever one to relish his interactions with the media, Belichick grimly refused to respond to a half-dozen questions about the scandal, possible punishments and the potential effect on his team. Begging for a football question, he seemed ready to abort the news conference after just a few minutes at the podium.\n“Any questions about the Chargers?” he pleaded in his standard, other-things-to-do monotone. “Want to talk about the football game? If not, I think that statement pretty much covers it.”\nIt appeared that there were none, before one reporter asked about Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson.\nThe prospect of defending against the reigning NFL offensive player of the year is not the sort of thing that usually cheers up opposing coaches.\nBut Belichick smiled.\n“I think the Chargers are a concern. Their football team is a concern. That’s what we’re concerned about,” he said. “Whatever happens out there Sunday night, out there on the field, that’s when everybody will make their statement.”\nAfter another 15 minutes of football questions, though, the subject returned to the \nspying scandal.\n“Is there any other question on the Chargers?” Belichick said before walking out. “OK. Yep. That’s all. OK. \nThank you.”\nNFL security confiscated a video camera and tape from Patriots video assistant Matt Estrella on Sunday when he was working on the New York Jets’ sideline during New England’s 38-14 victory. The league has confirmed that it is investigating whether the Patriots were taping the Jets’ defensive coaches as they signaled to players on the field.\nJets coach Eric Mangini, a former Belichick assistant, also declined to comment. Asked if he had any knowledge of such shenanigans while he was in New England, he followed the form of his mentor.\n“As I said with this whole issue, it’s a league issue and they are handling it,” Mangini said. “And we are really focused on the Ravens.”\nPatriots players also tried to focus on their game.\n“I’m the last person in the world to know any of that stuff, anyway,” offensive lineman Matt Light said. “I could care less what happens outside of my little world.”\nBut Goodell doesn’t have that luxury.\nIn a busy year for his misbehaving minions, the commissioner has already banned Tennessee cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones for the entire season after repeated run-ins with police. Atlanta quarterback Michael Vick has been suspended indefinitely while he faces a likely jail term for his role in a dogfighting ring.\nThe Bengals had 10 players charged with crimes during a 14-month span, and both receiver Chris Henry and linebacker Odell Thurman are currently suspended. Cincinnati quarterback Carson Palmer wants Goodell to be consistent with his punishment, whether the offender is wearing a uniform or not.\n“Hopefully there’s a harsh enough penalty that it’s not worth it to try to cheat and try to get any advantage that you’re not allowed to get,” Palmer said. “I hope the commissioner is just as harsh on them as he’s been on individual players for making mistakes.”\nESPN.com, citing league sources, reported Tuesday that Goodell has already determined the Patriots violated league rules; both teams say no decision has been made. The Web site’s report said Goodell is considering severe sanctions, including docking the Patriots “multiple draft picks.”\nBelichick sidestepped questions about the commissioner’s timetable and about whether he had any contingencies in place should he get suspended – the most drastic of the potential penalties Goodell could consider. The coach also refused to discuss whether he worried that the scandal – dubbed “videogate” in the press room, of course – would distract his players.\nAlso at stake is the legacy of the NFL’s latest dynasty, one that memorably rejected individual on-field introductions before its first Super Bowl victory, instead “choosing to be introduced as a team.” Stressing individual discipline and salary cap selflessness in a league where they tend to be in short supply, the Patriots won three NFL titles in four years and held themselves up as a model organization.\nNow, they’re being accused of cheating.\n“That’s not going to tarnish this team,” running back Kevin Faulk said. “We know what we do and how hard we work.”\nLinebacker Chad Brown, who re-signed for a second stint with the team this week and landed in the middle of the tumult, acknowledged it would be embarrassing if the allegations turn out to be true. But he also said the videotaping is an offshoot of the gamesmanship all teams indulge in.\n“I think that all the facts should come out before people judge this organization,” Brown said. “I think we do things the right way.”
(09/13/07 3:37am)
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Nearly a year later, Chris Smith still wonders how it happened.\nThe former Florida International player doesn’t know why he threw Miami’s Matt Perrelli to the turf and punched him to help spark one of the worst on-field brawls in college football history. Or why dozens of others starting fighting as well. Or why some swung helmets and crutches as weapons.\nSmith watched the replays that night in his room in sheer disbelief, then looked at the ceiling and sobbed. He spent the rest of the weekend in solitude, trying to figure what went wrong. He’s still pondering that one.\n“I remember thinking it would be a slight confrontation,” said Smith, whose college career ended that night; he was kicked off FIU’s team two days later. “And before I knew it, everything just happened. I was like, whoa! This thing got way out of hand.”\nIn all, 31 players – 18 from FIU, 13 from Miami – were sanctioned for the fight, which marred the first meeting between the programs separated by nine miles in South Florida. Most of those 31 players will be in uniform Saturday, when the teams meet again at the Orange Bowl.\nBoth teams have made the same vow: Another fight cannot, and will not, happen.\n“Nobody thought last year would be that type of deal,” Miami coach Randy Shannon said. “But it was.”\nIf this were a regular week, the storylines would be easy.\nFIU’s first-year coach Mario Cristobal is facing his alma mater, a school where he coached until last December. Shannon will see his son, Xavier, starting on FIU’s offensive line. Miami safety Kenny Phillips’ brother Jarvis Wilson plays at FIU.\nOf course, all those are overshadowed by the events of Oct. 14, 2006.\n“It’s like a forest fire,” Miami athletic director Paul Dee said. “You never plan on it. ... And it starts in a flash.”\nThat night started, oddly enough, with some sportsmanship: Miami and FIU’s bands congregated at midfield and played “America the Beautiful.”\nBut the problems were already starting.\nThe Hurricanes said an FIU player deliberately ran into a Miami player during warmups. There were plenty of hits after the whistle as the night went along, with some of those labeled by both sides as cheap shots. Verbal taunting was a constant.\n“Usually when it gets to that point, refs step in and stop it,” Smith said. “But it happened so fast, it probably caught them off-guard, too.”\nWith nine minutes left in the third quarter, as Smith said, “the coffee pot started overflowing.”\nMiami’s Kyle Wright threw a touchdown pass to James Bryant, who pointed at the FIU sideline as he scored and took a theatrical bow toward the stands. FIU players reacted angrily, and after Jon Peattie kicked the extra point, the fight was on.\n“There was a lot of extra stuff going on that really nobody wants to talk about, a lot of stuff that’s between the whistles that’s not caught on all the cameras,” Smith said. “I’m not pointing any fingers. It takes two to tango. But enough was enough. He took that bow and it was very disrespectful.”\nSmith attacked Perrelli, Miami’s holder who was then kicked in the head by FIU player Michael McDuffie – who is still an FIU student. He politely declined an interview request, only saying he wants to put the situation behind him.\nThe fracas escalated quickly; even Miami’s chaplain was struck during the melee.\n“It was awful,” Miami defensive end Calais Campbell said. “We’re out here to play football. We’re not here to fight. I didn’t really know what was happening at first. And when I saw one of my teammates about to get hit, I got in the way and pulled somebody back. I just wanted it to end.”\nOfficials from both schools acknowledge the fight was a concern leading up to the game. Many Miami and FIU players were high school rivals and both teams have rosters largely filled by South Florida natives who have competed against each other for years.\n“Sometimes when we play teams that have players on the team who want to be at a certain school, that can happen,” Randy Shannon said. “I think that’s what happened last year. Our players will be better prepared for it this year and I think coach Cristobal will do a good job of making them understand. He’ll handle it and we will, too. We’ll all do a better job.”\nSuspensions came the next day. Former Miami player Lamar Thomas, a TV analyst on the game, was fired by Comcast Sports SouthEast for comments he made, including “You come into our house, you should get your behind kicked.” The fight may have helped prompt coaching changes.\nFIU coach Don Strock – the only coach in the program’s five-year history – resigned about a month later. Miami’s Larry Coker was fired after a 6-6 regular season, but has said if the brawl never took place, he believes he’d still be coaching the Hurricanes.\n“Looking back, the series was a mistake. But at first, I thought it would be great,” Coker recently told The AP. “It was another home game for us and a good series for FIU from the standpoint of their credibility and giving their families a chance to see a game. I thought it was a good move. As it turned out, it was terrible.”\nThere was some talk about postponing or canceling this season’s game amid the fallout from the brawl. But many support the decision to play.\n“If we can’t play a clean collegiate football game between two schools nine miles apart,” FIU athletic director Pete Garcia said, “then shame on us.”\nSmith won’t be there Saturday, saying he has no interest in reliving the bad memories.\nHis football career isn’t over; he was in camp with the Philadelphia Eagles this summer and he said there are other NFL teams interested in him. For now, he’s back at FIU, taking the last few classes he needs to finish his criminal justice degree.\n“It was a terrible thing,” Smith said. “But we move on.”
(09/10/07 2:26am)
HAMMOND, Ind. – A broken drainage device might have contributed to the flooding and closure of a major road artery into and out of Chicago last month, a joint investigation by several agencies has revealed.\nThe device, known as a flapgate and located in a drainage pipe along Interstate 80/94, was not working properly during heavy rains, sending water back onto the highway, Dan Gardner, executive director of the Little Calumet River Basin Commission, told the Post-Tribune of Merrillville for a story Friday.\nThe flapgates are designed to close when water flows toward the highway.\nThe commission, the Indiana Department of Transportation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the city of Hammond are jointly investigating why the highway, also known as the Borman Expressway, was forced to close almost entirely Aug. 24-26.\nAngie Fegaras, an INDOT spokeswoman, said the flapgate and other possible factors in the flooding remained under investigation.\nOfficials are also looking into a privately owned levee that broke nearby and a malfunctioning lift station in Hammond, Fegaras said.\n“All parties have come together to work as a team to further investigate the flooding, to establish future guidelines and to further investigate an alternative drainage system,” Fegaras said.\nImad Samara of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said dangerous accumulation of water on the highway receded once back-up gates were closed.\n“When we closed them,” Samara said, “things kind of got better.”\nNeither Gardner nor Fegaras could say which agency was responsible for maintaining the flapgate.\nGardner said the timing of the flood could turn out to be favorable if changes must be made to the highway’s drainage system.\nAnother contract is about to be awarded in the Army Corps’ Little Calumet River flood control project, Gardner said, and it will take place in the area where the flood occurred.\nIf a consensus can be reached on what caused the flood by the end of September, Gardner said, it might be possible to add the remedial work to the contract.\n“As early as Thanksgiving we could have repairs, remediation, being done,” Gardner said.
(09/07/07 3:58am)
CHICAGO – The Big Ten Network reached an agreement on Thursday with satellite TV provider Dish Network, expanding the reach of the \nnew channel.\nThe number of households with the network nationwide will initially increase from about 17 million to 28.5 million. In the eight states with Big Ten schools, the number will increase from 3.5 to 6.2 million.\nDish customers who subscribe to the America’s Top 100 package or higher will have access to the channel through early 2008. After that, customers in the eight Big Ten states will get the channel on the America’s Top 100 Plus service, which includes regional sports networks. It has yet to be determined how the channel will be made available to customers outside the eight states after that time.\nThe network was already airing on Dish on Thursday. The channel debuted Aug. 30 and offered its first live football games last weekend.\nSatellite competitor DIRECTV carried the network from the beginning. The Big Ten Network has yet to reach agreements with several major cable providers – primarily Comcast – leaving many fans in the eight states without access to the channel.
(09/07/07 2:44am)
WINAMAC, Ind. – A man who spent 40 years in prison for killing a 6-year-old girl and her 3-year-old brother while he was a teenager has been charged with offering $50 to a boy to go with him to a nearby beach to pose for pictures.\nRichard Allen Dobeski, 59, was arrested Aug. 31, exactly 43 years to the day he was sentenced to two life sentences for murder. He was arrested after authorities searched his mobile home in Westville, Pulaski County Prosecutor Stacey L. Mrak said.\nDobeski is charged with felony counts of attempted criminal confinement and enticing a child. The age of the boy has not been released. The incident occurred near Monterey, about 50 miles south of South Bend.\nHe was being held Thursday in the Pulaski County Jail under $100,000 bond.\nDobeski was 16 in 1964 when he was convicted in the slayings of 3-year-old Cary Robert Johnston and his sister, Shawn Elizabeth Johnston, 6, of Long Beach. He received two life sentences.\nThe children were found in a crawl space underneath Dobeski’s home in Long Beach, just east of Michigan City.\nIn 1984, during an appeal, Dobeski agreed to a deal that reduced the life sentence to two 40-year terms. The murdered children’s parents, who had moved from the Michigan City area, were unaware Dobeski had been granted a sentence modification.\nThe Indiana Supreme Court ruled in November 2000 that Dobeski’s new sentencing arrangement must stand, allowing him to be eligible for parole. Dobeski was released from prison in 2003.
(09/07/07 2:44am)
TIPTON, Ind. – Cardboard manufacturer Midwest Sheets Co. must pay a $600,000 fine following its guilty plea Thursday to federal charges over a chemical spill that killed more than 2,000 fish.\nMidwest Sheets pleaded guilty to three counts of violating the federal Clean Water Act for two July 22, 2002, discharges of more than 1,800 gallons of the caustic soda, or sodium hydroxide, federal prosecutors said.\nCompany officials failed to notify the Tipton wastewater treatment plant of the discharges, which occurred when a storage tank overflowed, sending the chemical directly into the sewer system in the city about 30 miles north of Indianapolis, prosecutors said.\nThe highly concentrated chemical, which the company uses to make glue for corrugated cardboard, spilled into nearby Cicero Creek, killing 2,000 fish and disrupting Tipton’s wastewater treatment plant for a week.\nU.S. District Judge David Hamilton in Indianapolis ordered the company to pay the fine, to publicly apologize for the chemical release and implement corporate and employee environmental training programs. He also ordered the company to comply with all federal, state and local environmental laws.\nThe company’s general manager, Duane Matschullat, said in a statement that Midwest Sheets “deeply regrets” causing the spills.\n“Midwest Sheets takes corporate citizenship very seriously and deeply regrets the damage caused by the spill,” he said.
(09/04/07 3:58am)
INDIANAPOLIS – First, Don Bundy had trouble remembering the names of his grandchildren. Now, the 69-year-old Alzheimer’s patient forgets what a dinner plate is and relies on his wife, Carolyn, to remember his age.\nSince doctors diagnosed Bundy a few years ago, he’s volunteered for several drug studies and brain scans. He knows they’ll help science – but probably not him.\n“I think it’s an opportunity to help others have a better life, really,” the Indianapolis resident said.\nBundy’s efforts are part of a push by more than a dozen drug makers to crack an Alzheimer’s market loaded with blockbuster potential for the company that develops a breakthrough treatment.\nThe potential market alone is staggering: more than 26 million people diagnosed worldwide, a figure that is expected to quadruple by 2050. An effective treatment could easily surpass $1 billion in annual sales, said Joe Tooley, an analyst with A.G. Edwards & Sons.\nBut first a treatment has to get to market.\nWyeth has 23 drug compounds in various stages of development. Fellow drug maker Eli Lilly and Co. has started patient testing on a couple more.\nIndianapolis-based Lilly also is working with GE Healthcare on diagnostic testing that tells the difference between Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, which could ensure proper treatment.\n“I think in the course of our lifetime that we’ll see a significant change in the way we understand Alzheimer’s disease and the way we treat and possibly even prevent it,” said Niles Frantz, a spokesman for the Chicago-based Alzheimer’s Association.\nAlzheimer’s is an irreversible, fatal disease. It involves the formation of lesions in the brain called plaques and tangles. Scientists believe they poison nerve cells and interfere with the ability to learn and reason.\nCarolyn Bundy thinks the disease began developing in her husband’s brain around the year 2000, when he started forgetting names and struggling with his job as a quality control manager at a food processing center.\nThen he began confusing simple tasks. She’d ask him to go to the garage for a screwdriver. He’d come back with a hammer. Now, she has to tell him over and over how to wash his hands or brush his teeth.\n“What he can do today, he might not be able to do tomorrow,” she said. “But something he can’t do today he might have no problem with tomorrow.\n“It’s a moving target.”\nAvailable treatments can ease symptoms of the disease, but none target its roots.\n“There’s just a huge unmet need for drugs to treat (Alzheimer’s),” said Brandon Troegle, a Morningstar analyst who covers Lilly. “Right now, there’s obviously no cures or anything that even stops the progression.”\nNeither Lilly nor Wyeth has an Alzheimer’s treatment on \nthe market.\nLilly is developing a drug that might attack the disease instead of the symptoms. The unnamed drug slows the growth of a sticky protein that serves as a building block for plaque. Lilly wants to find out whether it slows Alzheimer’s as well.\nThe company plans to start testing on 1,500 patients early next year.\n“The symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease gradually worsen over time,” said Dr. Eric Siemers, a Lilly researcher. “What we would expect to see is the rate of decline in those symptoms is slowed, and so people are milder for a longer period of time.”\nAnother Lilly drug in an earlier stage of development could clear this protein from the body by latching onto it when it leaves the brain and then preventing it \nfrom returning.\nWyeth’s potential Alzheimer’s treatments range from drugs that handle symptoms to those that attack the disease. It is partnering with Elan Corp. to develop an antibody that binds to Alzheimer’s plaque and could clear it from \nthe brain.\nAll told, a couple dozen Alzheimer’s drugs have entered later-stage testing on people, said Dr. Sam Gandy, chairman of the Alzheimer’s Association medical and scientific advisory council.\nEventually, he thinks Alzheimer’s patients might be treated with a drug cocktail similar to what’s used for HIV or AIDS patients.\n“That’s easily five or 10 years away,” Gandy said.
(09/04/07 2:45am)
LAPORTE, Ind. – Former Indiana Gov. Joseph Kernan has been tapped as a consultant for a proposal to bring an intermodal rail development to LaPorte County.\nKernan is a part-time consultant for Cressy & Everett, a Mishawaka, Ind., real estate development and management firm with options to buy land near Union Mills about 30 miles southwest of South Bend.\nKernan, who went to high school with the firm’s owners, said the intermodal project is still being researched for LaPorte County. An intermodal is a rail yard where goods are loaded and unloaded from train flat cars and trucks for transport by rail and highway.\nKernan said intermodals can be strong economic development engines, creating jobs while also reducing tractor-trailer traffic on roads and highways. He said northwestern Indiana is an ideal place for such a project.\n“Its proximity to Chicago and multiple railroad lines that connect to Chicago gives it the opportunity for the right kind of facility to be created,” he said.\nKernan said Cressy & Everett first must determine if the project is viable and makes sense financially. Then, he said the project would need the support of the railroads.
(09/04/07 2:44am)
BROWNSBURG, Ind. – A small plane landed on a stretch of highway that was under construction Monday after the pilot reported having mechanical problems, officials said.\nThe pilot told officials he was heading to Eagle Creek Airport on the northwest side of Indianapolis when he decided the twin-engine plane would not make it and spotted a section of Ronald Reagan Parkway being built in Hendricks County.\nThe planed landed safely at about 10 a.m., but a wing was damaged when it clipped a piece of construction equipment, Ryan Miller of the Brownsburg Fire Territory said. The pilot and the other person on board suffered no injuries.\n“Had any part of this scenario been different, it could have been very tragic,” Miller said. “To have to initiate an emergency landing and finding an area that’s safe enough to land your aircraft without injuring yourself or damaging the aircraft any more than he did, I think is very lucky.”\nThe section of highway being built in the suburbs west of Indianapolis is unpaved, but the packed gravel made a relatively safe landing site, Miller said.\nInformation on the identities of those on the plane or where the flight originated was not immediately released.
(09/03/07 3:37am)
FORT WAYNE – Two Korean War veterans who served their country rather than finishing high school nearly 60 years ago finally have their diplomas thanks to a change in \nstate law.\nCarl Edwards and Arthur Flotow, both 77, were joined by relatives Saturday night when they received their framed high school diplomas in a special ceremony at a Fraternal Order of the Eagles Lodge in Fort Wayne.\nAlthough diplomas were offered to veterans of World War I and World War II, the benefit was only extended to Korean and Vietnam war veterans in May after Gov. Mitch Daniels signed new legislation into law.
(08/29/07 4:00am)
HAMMOND, Ind. – Residents and officials are questioning why Interstate 80/94 flooded last week, causing parts of the route into Chicago that is one of the nation’s busiest stretches of highway to be closed for three days.\nIndiana Department of Transportation officials defended the design, saying unusually heavy rains were to blame for the closure of the highway section that has been rebuilt over the past three years.\n“It was an act of nature,” INDOT spokesman Joshua Bingham said.\nBut area residents and officials, including Hammond’s city engineer, rejected that argument. They believe some improper drainage was to blame for the problems with the highway known in the area as the Borman Expressway.\n“I’m not an engineer, but I can tell you there’s a problem and it must be fixed,” Hammond City Councilman Dan Repay said.\nA section of the highway was closed to all traffic on Saturday and partially shut Friday through Sunday because of flooding that reached three feet deep at points in a \nthree-mile stretch.\nBingham said last week’s storms created a 100-year flood for the Little Calumet River that runs along the highway.\n“INDOT didn’t cause the flood. The rain caused the flood,” he said.\nStanley Dostatni, Hammond’s city engineer, said he believed the reconstructed highway is susceptible to flooding because the new design narrowed the storm water ditches considerably. He said that means when the area becomes saturated with rising flood waters, the water has nowhere to go but on the road.\nINDOT spokeswoman Angie Fegaras said Dostatni was mistaken. Despite how it appears, she said the ditch system was upgraded and is “adequate” for normal amounts of rain.\nCrew were continuing Tuesday to pump water from the ramps and some surrounding areas at two interchanges for I-80/94 a few miles east of the Illinois-Indiana state line. All ramps were not expected to be reopened until late in \nthe week.
(08/29/07 3:51am)
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Illinois basketball coach Bruce Weber said promising recruit Quinton Watkins will not play or attend school this fall because he is not academically eligible.\nWatkins could still join the team in the spring after attending either a preparatory school or a junior college.\nWeber announced last week that junior guard Jamar Smith will sit out the year after pleading guilty to drunk driving.\nWatkins, meanwhile, was expected to compete for playing time as point guard. Returning starter Chester Frazier is now most likely to start at point.\nWeber says the team will start figuring out its guard rotation while on a weekend trip to play in Canada.